Beginner sewing machine for wallets,watch straps,light stufd

[KennethM]

I am overwhelmed with all the sewing machine options out there.

 

Is there any sewing machine under 1k that would be good for wallets,watch straps,maybe even belts?

[battlemunky]

I just hand stitch it all. Maybe if I ever go full time leather worker and need to keep to a schedule I'll get a machine or run up on a ridiculous deal. Until then, I'll hand sew  

[KennethM]

Lol man I can't hand stitch no more..to time consuming I gotta speed this up brother

[Jbinpa59]

Read the sticky post about "the type of  sewing machines you need to sew leather" in this foroum

But that said

For work up to about 5/16 " thick a used upholstery class walking foot machines preferably with a servo motor seems to be the most suggested option

Consew 226, 255, 206 and Juki 562, 563 are the ones im most familiar with there are many others

Well maintained older manual oiling or gravity wick oiler type machines of that class are what i'd look for

craigslist or the sales forum here are better sources than ebay,  most eBay sellers either over price, overhype, or don't actually know anything about leather stiching

unless the seller is local and you're doing an inspection before finalizing the deal avoid ebay

You really want to sew off your materials and with your thread on proposed machine before buying

Admittedly i bought a cb4500 off eBay without seeing it in person first and then drove 600 miles each way  to pick it up

But the bids stalled out quite low for that machine  due to the sellers adamant no shipping policy

also He had vids of machine in operation posted and A copy of receipt posted showing machine options and age and what he paid for it 

You should be able to find something for less than $500 plus some driving but you'll be limited to 138 thread

A cb3200 recently sold in Greenville sc, for a bit over $1100iirc and that's a purpose tuned setup that'll do 2x the thickness of an upholstery class unit

Hth

Jim

 

Edited September 30, 2018 by Jbinpa59
Typos

[R8R]

4 hours ago, KennethM said:

I am overwhelmed with all the sewing machine options out there.

 

Is there any sewing machine under 1k that would be good for wallets,watch straps,maybe even belts?

Keep reading this forum. There is a wealth of info on pretty much every leather capable machine made in the last 100 years here.

Not sure where you are in Mississippi but a drive up to Nick O Sew in TN might be worth it to you.

[Trevor Baret]

4 hours ago, Jbinpa59 said:

Read the sticky post about "the type of  sewing machines you need to sew leather" in this foroum

 

I have searched that phrase.  How do we find that sticky?

[billybopp]

3 minutes ago, Trevor Baret said:

I have searched that phrase.  How do we find that sticky?

He means a pinned topic in the sewing machine forum.  Pinned topics are sometimes called sticky ( like a post-it note too).

 

[Trevor Baret]

1 minute ago, billybopp said:

He means a pinned topic in the sewing machine forum.  Pinned topics are sometimes called sticky ( like a post-it note too).

 

Thanks billybopp,

How do I find such a sticky.  Searching the title came up with no matches.

I have actually read most of that series of posts by Wizcrafts before, but then not been able to find it again.

My question also applies to other subjects I want to find - I often get the answer "No Matches" even when I know the exact title of the post...

[JJN]

Trevor, be sure you are searching the entire site when you search, not just a limited topic. Check the pull down menu to the left of the search box. Also, you can use exact phrases in "quotes" to get more concise results.

Edited October 1, 2018 by JJN

[brmax]

Scroll down to the bottom; in bold! Tap on the “ go to topic listings “

This will lead to the main area of the: leather sewing machines

On my screen it ( pinned/stickies) has green pins!  As one uses on cork board

 

good day

Floyd

[Jbinpa59]

2 hours ago, Trevor Baret said:

Thanks billybopp,

How do I find such a sticky.  Searching the title came up with no matches.

I have actually read most of that series of posts by Wizcrafts before, but then not been able to find it again.

My question also applies to other subjects I want to find - I often get the answer "No Matches" even when I know the exact title of the post...

a Google search with your

topic keywords + leatherworker.net

as the search term will get better results

Google's search engine is better and adding +leatherworker.net restricts the results to this forum group

 

 

[Jbinpa59]

3 hours ago, Trevor Baret said:

I have searched that phrase.  How do we find that sticky?

Currently it's the 9th topic in this forum the last pinned topic before the newest active topic

[Wizcrafts]

This is my "Sticky" topic about the type of sewing machine you need to sew leather. It stays put on the entry page to this section the "Leather Sewing Machines" section of the Leatherworker.net forum. All sticky topics remain above all standard topics that float up and down with activity or inactivity.

 

[Northmount]

12 hours ago, Jbinpa59 said:

Google's search engine is better and adding +leatherworker.net restricts the results to this forum group

If you include site:leatherworker.net in the search string, then it is forced to this site only.  Google really irritates me when it ignores words that I really want in the search string, so I think it could drop your "+leatherworker.net" parameter as well if it is not finding enough instances.

Tom

[Trevor Baret]

Thank you all for the responses about finding the topic.

Go to topic Listings is the simplest for the Pinned Topic - if you know it is pinned.

It looks like the Google search is more effective than the search on the site.

Thanks especially to Wizcrafts for all of the excellent information in the series of posts under the pinned topic that you link above.  Incredibly informative for those new to leather sewing machines.